1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a three-dimensional image display apparatus and a manufacturing method thereof. More particularly, the invention relates to a three-dimensional image display apparatus in which the peripheral portion of a retarder is adhered to an image display section, and to a manufacturing method for such a three-dimensional image display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known three-dimensional image display apparatus includes a combination of a liquid crystal display and a retarder, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-253824. In this three-dimensional image display apparatus, the retarder is adhered to one of the surfaces of the liquid crystal display which is closer to a viewer, by using an adhesive.
Here, the liquid crystal display and the retarder expand/contract when heated up/cooled down during the manufacturing process of the three-dimensional image display apparatus, and therefore deform. Apart from this, the retarder may have an uneven surface. For these reasons, the adhesive used to adhere together the liquid crystal display and the retarder is required to be flexible enough to be capable of deforming in response to the deformation of the liquid crystal display and the retarder or to be capable of realizing flatness in spite of the distorted surfaces of the liquid crystal display and the retarder and the unevenness of the thicknesses of the liquid crystal display and the retarder. That is to say, the adhesive is required to be sufficiently flexible to be capable of absorbing the deformation and the unevenness of the surfaces.
One type of adhesives satisfying such a requirement are adhesives with a reduced glass transition temperature. The adhesives having a low glass transition temperature, however, are likely to creep when experiencing heat and force during the manufacturing process of the three-dimensional image display apparatus and when the three-dimensional image display apparatus is used under the high-temperature environment. Therefore, the retarder may be misaligned with respect to the image display section of the liquid crystal display.